Tags

Erbil – Cemil Bayık, co-President of the PKK-affiliated Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), congratulated the newly elected US President Donald Trump with his election victory, and said that they hope Trump will pursue a policy in favour of his people and humanity as the US policies influence the entire world, including the Kurdistan territory.

“There is a big war ongoing in the Middle East today amid mounting changes and formation of new balances. The US, Russia and other forces are all involved in this battle,” Bayik said. “We are a part of the Middle East, and Kurdistan is a backbone of the Middle East. Every policy on the Middle East has an influence on Kurds and the PKK. The politics of the PKK do also influence the entire Kurdistan and the region,” he told the Kurdish Sterk TV.

“We hope the US will take the Kurds into consideration in its Middle East politics. I believe the US will see the injustice, atrocity and genocidal policy against the Kurds and the struggle of Kurds against this aggression,” the senior Kurdish leader said.

Furthermore, Bayik called on Kurds to sever their ties with the Turkish state in Turkey.

“Our people should know that we have reached the stage of freedom, which is why the war is being waged this much violent. Our people should not live with the Turkish state anymore and they should sever all their ties with this system. If they do this, this system will collapse and the society of Turkey will attain peace even sooner,” he said.

The Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) also congratulated Trump in the beginning of November. The Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan was among the first leaders to congratulate Trump on the day he was elected.

Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser for Trump, called on the US to repair its relations with Turkey and support AKP’s position that Turkish Islamist sect leader Fethullah Gulen is an extremist who was behind the failed July coup against his government and should be deported from the United States to Turkey.

This despite the fact that Flynn in the past warned about the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the fact that Turkey is one of the biggest supporters of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement.

“Flynn gets Erdogan wrong, whitewashes recent Turkish behavior, fails the logic test and proposes a policy prescription that would make matters worse,” Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) wrote. “Then there is the assumption that Erdogan is fine with moderate Muslims but intolerant of radical Muslims. If that’s the case, perhaps Gen. Flynn can explain why Erdogan has not only hosted Hamas, but embraced its most militant leadership,” he added.